Pizza dough maker aims for bigger slice of market with automation

York-based pizza dough balls maker Great Balls of Flour is investing £100,000 in automation to boost productivity, double turnover and create new jobs, with Made Smarter support.

The Challenge

Founded in 2021, the business uses a small batch, 48-hour fermentation process to produce high-quality, slow-proofed frozen pizza dough balls for home pizza ovens, including Neapolitan, sourdough and gluten-free options. It also produces a range of pizza flour mixes and its own pizza “dusts” to help make restaurant-quality pizza at home.

The business employs four full-time staff and currently generates an annual turnover of around £1 million.

Led by Director James Talbot, the company has a clear growth ambition to increase turnover to £2 million within three years through automation, improved productivity and better use of skilled staff.

However, production of the flour range is constrained by a highly manual packaging process for pizza flour mixes and dusts. Weighing, filling, capping and labelling is carried out by hand, creating a critical bottleneck and limiting output.

The manual process is slow, labour-intensive and prone to inconsistency, diverting skilled staff away from the company’s automated dough ball line. Inaccurate manual weighing also resulted in higher levels of product waste, impacting both margins and environmental performance.
Without addressing this bottleneck, further scaling and growth are not achievable.

The Solution

Following engagement with Made Smarter, the company went through the digital transformation workshop process, which breaks down the digital journey into quick, iterative steps and creates a roadmap of how to get there. This identified the digital tools and technologies that can be
implemented to maximise operational processes and enhance growth, as well as any skills development needed in the business.

As a result Great Balls of Flour identified a project for a fully integrated, automated packaging line. The £100,000 investment, supported by a £20,000 Made Smarter grant, includes an automatic vacuum filling machine, automatic capping machine and automatic labelling machine, creating an end-to-end automated process.

The filler uses digital sensors and load cells to deliver precise, programmed weighing, while the capping and labelling equipment uses integrated sensors to ensure placement accuracy and print real-time batch and use-by information, meeting retailer quality and traceability requirements.

The new line operates as a dedicated, independent process and integrates with the wider operation by freeing up skilled staff currently tied to manual packaging. Output data from the equipment will also integrate with existing production planning systems, which are currently manual and spreadsheet-based, enabling more accurate inventory and capacity planning.

The Benefits

Once fully operational, the automated packaging line is expected to deliver a step change in productivity, efficiency and sustainability across the business.

Output per person-hour is forecast to increase by up to 2,000 per cent, rising from one tube per minute to 20 tubes per minute, removing the slow, error-prone manual weighing process that previously constrained growth.

The speed of the new line, combined with the company’s existing automated dough ball production, will enable flexible multi-shift operation, allowing production to expand from an eight-hour day to 16 or 24 hours as demand requires and maximising the use of existing assets.

The precision of the digitally controlled filling system will significantly reduce product waste by eliminating inaccuracies associated with manual weighing, supporting both cost efficiency and environmental objectives.

Consolidating production into a single, efficient automated process is also expected to reduce energy consumption per unit.

At the same time, the investment will improve job quality by freeing skilled staff from repetitive manual tasks, allowing greater focus on higher-value production activities and quality control, while creating a more scalable operation capable of supporting future wholesale and export growth.

The project is expected to support revenue growth from £1 million to £2 million over the next three years, alongside the creation of new roles as capacity and demand increase.

The Future

The automation investment forms part of a wider Made Smarter journey. James Talbot has completed the Made Smarter Digital Leadership Programme, while Production Manager Steph Mallinson has also taken part in the Made Smarter Digital Champions programme, helping to embed digital skills and leadership capability across the business.

“The Digital Leadership Programme was incredibly insightful, particularly in how to manage resistance to change,” James said. “Automation can often trigger fears about redundancies, but for us it’s the exact opposite. It’s about upskilling our workforce. This course gave me the tools to communicate that our goal is to move people away from repetitive manual tasks and into more rewarding, higher-value roles.”

Great Balls of Flour has also been shortlisted for the Insider Made in Manufacturing Awards 2026, recognising its commitment to innovation, productivity and sustainable growth.

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